Pagers are known for receiving messages that are identified as a priority by the caller or initiator of the message. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,433 as having multiple addresses or subscriber numbers, at least one of which is an emergency number or address. Incoming signals are decoded by the pager to obtain the page information contained therein which will include a pager address and a message. Once the signal is decoded, the pager determines if the received address matches one of the addresses of the pager indicating that the received page information is intended for that particular pager. If the received page information includes the emergency number or address, it is identified as a priority and an alert is generated. With this system, only the caller or page initiator can determine whether a message contained within the page information is a priority by calling the emergency number/address of the pager as opposed to calling the non-emergency number or address of the pager. The user of the pager described in this patent has no control over whether a particular message is to be treated as a priority or not. Another similar paging system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,648 wherein a selective call controller determines the priority of calls to be transmitted to a selective call receiver having two addresses. The pager will respond to pages to the first address with a loud audible tone while responding to pages to the second address by a silent vibration for example. Again, with this system, the user of the pager has no control over whether a particular message is to be treated as a priority or not.